Bellhouse Bolts Nature Series, Volume 3: Capturing and Taming

Transmission's been freed.  No small amount of effort required in getting the bell unfastened, but it's done.

The transmission is a torqueflite 904, mated to the brutish 4.2L AMC 258 inline 6.  The I6 and V8 blocks of this period have the same bolt pattern, so some of the info I've provided will be useful for other configurations.  Lucky folks with a manual can just forgo all this bellhousing crap and just unbolt the transmission itself and leave the bell on the block.

Most of the bolts involved with the tf904 are easily accessible, and if you're lucky enough to be one of the majority who have or had a healthy flow of oil from the valve cover keeping everything in the engine bay well-lubricated, nearly all of them turn out fairly easy.  As always, though, there's a fuckery index value that has to be maintained for any "almost simple" task.

The maintainers of balance in this case are these top three bolts.

I spent far longer than I care to admit trying to access these things with about every configuration of wrench and socket I had available.  None of these warriors were fit to meet the challenge:

Not pictured is the 24" extension that was also in the mix.

Eventually, what won the day was deciding not to unbolt the bottom bolts first, which allowed me to drop the trans crossmember to where the retaining nuts were only on by 3 threads. This opened up enough space to use the following set up for the driver side bolt, the same with a longer extension for the passenger, and the swivel box-end for the topmost.

After that, I tightened the crossmember back up, removed the lower bolts, set my jack, and took a nap.  Hell if I know how I'm going to torque these top three to spec when putting the trans back in.  Past experience says I'll probably use the round method.  As in, "Well, I've rounded the heads off on all three of these fuckers, so they're as torqued as they're gonna get."

Here's the fastener sizes/tool type notes. I'll copy it to text later so the info can be indexed by advertisement robots.

Time to get back at it.

UPDATE: transmission is out. After a quick glance, I'm beginning to think that I'll probably have one of the two other 904s rebuilt instead of this one. Before I decide, though, I'm going to do a more thorough comparison to see what (if any) differences can be noted.

One of the others is originally from a Hornet Sportabout, if memory serves. If that's the case, it may be a 904 variant that would allow for some upgrade options.  Don't quote me on that, though; as you may have picked up already, I'm far from an expert.

UPDATE AGAIN:

Tool sizes for Torqueflite 904 transmission removal, socket should be fine unless otherwise specified.

• 5/16 - fill tube bracket
• 3/8 - u joint bolts 
• 1/2 - inspection cover, fluid line fittings on trans (wrench), crossmember bolts/nuts, oil pan
• 9/16 - starter (wrench), torque converter, top three bell bolts (ridiculous ratchet arrangement), trans mount
• 5/8 - cooler lines (flare), bottom two bell bolts